The Week in Geek: DC TV, Ghost Rider, Injustice 2, and More

Welcome to another bumper edition of The Week in Geek. We haven't forgotten all of the important geeky news of the week, but there's an awful lot of news about DC's TV slate.

Let's go through that, and then we'll move onto the rest of the gaming, comics, TV, and movie news you might have missed over the last seven days.

DC TV

Gotham Following the release of Suicide Squad, it's been reported that both Harley Quinn and Killer Croc will show up in Gotham. In fact they're set to appear in Season 3, but Harley might be a little bit different than people expect. Executive producer Ken Woodruff (speaking to IGN) has teased that we might have already met her:

"You may have already seen Harley as a person that you thought you had met and known for a long time. So we always reserve the right to sort of do that as well.

The Harley Quinn of it all is a bit more of a sticky wicket but it’s one we’ve already thought about for the character. We don’t want to give too much away but it will definitely be someone connected to the Joker cult world that we have set up. But it’s down the road, later in Season Three right now."

Is it Barbara? It's probably Barbara. I'll be very surprised if it's not.

Up next is out first look at Benedict Samuel as Jervis Tetch/The Mad Hatter courtesy of EW:

According to Fox's official description, this is what the character is like in the TV universe:

"Jervis Tetch is a talented hypnotist teetering on the edge of madness. He arrives in Gotham with an unwavering desire to find his sister, Alice, a young woman who went missing in the city years ago. It is anyone’s guess just how far down the rabbit hole he’s willing to go in order to find her."

Finally we now have a plot-based reason as to why Ivy Pepper/Poison Ivy now suddenly looks a few years older - a problem that occurred due to her being recast. The synopsis for Season 3 reads:

The series also will catch up with the future POISON IVY (Maggie Geha), who, after an encounter with a monster from Indian Hill, finds herself reborn as a young woman who’s harnessed the full power of her charms.

Apparently the monster Ivy encountered had the power to drain someone's life, and after temporarily suffering the effects she found herself a few years older as a full grown woman.We also have our first look at actress Maggie Geha in the role:

The Flash

One of the biggest events of DC TV this year is bound to be Flashpoint, the timeline created as a result of the Flash saving his mother's life at the hands of the Reverse Flash. It's now been confirmed by CW President Mark Pedowitz that the effects will bleed over into the network's other DC shows (Arrow, LoT, and Supergirl).

As a result of Flashpoint, Barry will start to gain new memories of his new mother-filled life. As part of that, he'll start forgetting his old life as The Flash.Grant Gustin said to DC All Access:

"Barry's the only one who knows that the timeline is different. And his memories are gradually being replaced by memories of graduating high school and college, his moments with his family, and when he realises that those memories are replacing other memories, that's when he starts to realise how selfish of a decision this was.

It means he's forgetting his powers, too. He's having a full Back to the Future moment, his hand disappearing in front of him."

It's been confirmed that a classic Flash rogue will be returning to Season 3, and his name is Grodd. Last we saw, Grodd was transported to Gorilla City on Earth 2 - meaning the dimensions aren't as closed off as everybody might like to think.

We also know at least one new antagonist for the coming season. CBR is reporting that Damon Grey has been cast as Mirror Master, a villain who can manipulate mirrors for his own nefarious purposes. This includes as a portal to escape through, which could be very beneficial when going up against someone with super speed.

Finally, movie Flash Ezra Miller has teased that there will be some sort of connection between him and Grant Gustin when speaking to MTV:

“He’s a boss. I can’t wait to see him, eye to eye, adrift in the Speed Force — our eyes will lock and, in that moment, we will both know the truth. What truth? I dare not say.”

He's probably just messing with us.

Arrow

Arrow watchers will know that for the past four years the show has featured flashbacks to Oliver's time away from Star City - most of it spent on the island of Lian Yu. But he was only gone for five years, so what happens after season 5? Apparently the flashbacks will be continuing, but in a different sort of way. Showrunner Marc Guggenheim explained it to IGN:

"Last year, when we sort of realised we're going to go past Season 5, we basically made a collective decision that Season 5 would be the final year of flashbacks. Next year, in Season 6, what we'll end up doing is we'll do some episodes without any sort of flashbacks. We've [also] established over the first four seasons of proof of concept that we can do flashback stories that don't involve what I call the island narrative, even when he's not on the island. We still want to make that part of our storytelling, because we do like them. We like when those non-island flashbacks sort of illuminate what's going on in the present day. That'll always be a part of the show and a part of the show's storytelling structure. It just won't be telling a serialised story."

We've also learned that Dolph Lungreen will be joining the fifth season as head of the Bratva (Russian Mob) in the flashback story.

Legends of Tomorrow

We have some news on Constantine, but it's probably not the news you want to here. Despite much fan support, the magic-wielding con-man still hasn't been confirmed for his own series. Sucks, right?

There is some news that offers a glimmer of hope in the future, the fact that Legends of Tomorrow executive producer Phil Klemmer thinks it would be a crime if Constantine didn't appear on the show at some point. He told Zap2it "If the show goes as many seasons as I hope it does, it would be a crime for [Constantine] not to appear in our universe."

Unfortunately LoT's future is a bit uncertain since The CW has only commissioned 13 episodes for Season 2. Thankfully if things go well, and the network's schedule clears up a bit, they do have the option of asking for an extra nine episodes. If something like Supernatural can keep going for what feels like 5 million years, surely we can get more time travelling adventures around the DC universe.

We also have more casting news for members of the Justice Society of America. Joining the classic hero team is Lance Henricksen (Aliens) as Obsidian, and Sarah Grey (Power Rangers reboot) as Stargirl.

We've had confirmation on who Chris Woods is playing in Supergirl season 2, and he is playing Mon-El. For those of you who don't know, Mon-El lived on Krypton but is actually a Daxamite. Daxamites have similar powers, but are affected by lead in the same way Kyrptonians are affected by kryptonite.

It was previously confirmed that Chris Woods was the occupant of the capsule that crash-landed at the very end of season one, so know we know exactly who was inside it.

It's also been confirmed that there will be another Martian joining the upcoming season, with Sharon Leal playing M'gann Morzz - better known as the hero Miss Martian. M'gann is a white Martian who rejected the actions of her species, and elected to make herself appear as a green Martian and be 'good' instead.

Kevin Smith has confirmed that he will be directing an episode of Supergirl (and another episode of The Flash), which will be called 'Supergirl Lives'. It's an interesting title, since Smith was hired to write a script for the ill-fated Superman Lives back in the '90s and has never stopped talking about it.

Finally, we have some solid details about Project Cadmus - the secretive government organisation mentioned (but never seen) in the first season. Speaking to EW producer Andrew Kreisberg confirmed that Cadmus is the 'big bad' of season 2, saying:

"It's dedicated to eradicating alien life on Earth. They're fanatics. They're true believers. It's a collection of scientists, of very bright, patriotic people who truly believe what they're saying. That makes them even more dangerous."

Needless to say that won't be very good for the increasing number of alien characters in the series.

The Rest

Ghost Rider

Robbie Reyes' Ghost Rider has been noticeably absent from the Marvel universe since the end of Secret Wars, but now the publisher has announced that he's returning in November in a relaunched Ghost Rider series. No doubt this something to do with the character's upcoming appearance on Agents of SHIELD.

Speaking of which, there are set videos circulating the web showing off Reyes' car in action. Still no sightings of Gabriel Luna in character. I doubt we'll be getting a peak at Ghost Rider from the set, because he's bound to need a fair bit of CGI to come to life on-screen.

Lando Calrissian

We already know that Disney may be putting a young Lando Calrissian in the Han Solo stand-alone movie, but who will play him? Birth. Movies. Death claims that Donald Glover (Community, The Martian) is Disney and Lucasfilm's favourite choice. I definitely think he could pull it off, as long as it doesn't interfere with any Marvel movies he's in following Spider-Man: Homecoming.

Injustice 2

Ed Boon, founder of Netherrealm Studios, took to Twitter earlier this week with a massive hint that the Red Hood will have some part to play in the upcoming Injustice 2. He created a Twitter poll asking people which Red Hood they'd like to see in the game, and obviously Jason Todd beat The Joker by a landslide.

Jason is the better choice, since he took on the mantle of Red Hood ever back in 2005. It would make things interesting for Batman to have him around as well. Plus if people really want the Joker version, Netherrealm can always include him as an alternate skin.

Justice League

Speaking with Kevin Smith, DC's Geoff Johns has confirmed that the Green Lantern Corps will appear in the Justice League movies. He just didn't specify the capacity in which they'd appear, or even which Justice League film. Still, it means DC can try and repair the damage caused by the 2008 film a bit sooner than 2020.

Assassin's Creed Movie

It has been revealed by Assassin's Creed weapon designer Tim Wildgoose that some of the film's weapons come straight out of the video games - and will be wielded by the same characters. So there you have it, characters from the AC games will be seen on screen. But, other than the fact that it will not be Altair or Ezio, we don't know which ones. "Famous" characters apparently.

It makes the most sense that characters from the modern day section of the series will show up, since the movie's 15th century setting hasn't been explored in-game. As for which ones, it isn't clear. My money is on the annoying duo known Rebecca and Shaun, but it could easily be any of the modern-day characters. Even the ones that are dead already.

Spider-Man: Homecoming

Marvel and Sony's upcoming Spider-Man film has cast a second villain, with Michael Chernus (MIB 3, Orange is the New Black) playing the Tinkerer. Rumour is that this version of the character is a former Stark Industries employee who was personally fired by Tony Stark for messing with Chitauri technology. He went onto develop gadgets for super criminals as a result. Presumably he'll be helping The Vulture (Michael Keaton) develop his tech.

Other rumours suggest that Bokeem Woodbine (Fargo season 2), who was cast several weeks ago, is playing The Shocker. He probably won't be a main villain, but Spider-Man is likely to butt heads with him at some point in the film.

Suicide Squad

DC's first proper ensemble movie hasn't had a great time, and reports suggest part of that stems from Warner Bros messing with the final cut of the film. Director David Ayer told Empire that there are actually "six or seven different versions of the film"

"There's a linear version we did where it opens up with June [Moon, played by Cara Delevigne] in the cave and tells the story in sequence with the arrests and Batman, and then we go to Belle Reve. The first script started in Belle Reve and told the backstories of everybody in these sort of flashback montages. The original conception is that there would be these memory bursts as they sat in their cells recalling their previous lives and also get the audience up to speed about who they are and how they ended up there. The first impulse was always to do a montage in the first act, but you chase different things."

Apparently test audiences were confused by these, especially the linear version, so they went ahead and created Amanda Waller's 'dossier' introductions to introduce the various characters. Unfortunately Ayer has put to rest any rumours that there will be an R-rated cut of the film released at some point. There are deleted scenes, but what we saw is what we get.

Ayer has also explained more points about the death of Robin. Eagle-eyed viewers will have see the small flash that said Harley was implicated in Robin's murder, so he clarified what he thinks happened:

"This is sort of my personal thing and maybe less about a larger connection. But Joker killed Robin and Batman basically smashes his teeth out and locks him up in Arkham Asylum. It’s in the asylum where Joker would have done the ‘damaged’ tattoo as a message to Batman saying, 'You’ve damaged me. I was so beautiful before and now you’ve destroyed my face.' That’s where the grill comes from."

We filmed so much of our backstory. They probably realised the emotional through line of the story had to be the mission we were on. And kind of explaining The Enchantress's position and all of that kind of stuff. And the backstory stuff is like magic. Some of the stuff we shot is insane. They are flashbacks, meant to be snippets. But I think when we were filming maybe we got too engrossed into flashbacks. Especially when you got Jared, he's going so deep with that character and we're all like going really deep. And David goes really deep with the characters. Yeah, so there's a lot, but it didn't make sense to confuse the current/present storyline to incorporate all of that."

Aquaman

According to The Wrap, we now know the villain of the upcoming Aquaman movie. The site claims that Jason Momoa will be going up against Black Manta, one of Aquaman's fiercest foes from the comics. This is totally unconfirmed, unfortunately, and when asked director James Wan said that he wasn't allowed to comment on things like that.

Needless to say, a number of actor have already started campaigning for the role.

Doctor Strange

There's a new trailer for the film, which was revealed during the Olympics:

The X-Files

Fox seems keen to continue bringing us more of The X-Files, with Fox network president David Madden saying "there are significant talks going on with all three principals" and they "would love to do another season soon."

No word on when it'll hit our television screens. Hopefully it won't take another 10+ years.